Laid Off After More Than 30 Years

MakersDozn wrote:Well, we finally applied for unemployment. More than five months after the fact.

Denial sucks.

HEY.



Denial's MY side of the street!



Oh me- that IS a good thing yeah? As Gang said, it is! That's what that safety net is for.

And five months after, is better than not at all.

And 30 years is a long time to be in one place of employment, these days- I think a little denial is to be expected from any but the most perfect among the species.....

TheGangsAllHere wrote:Isn't that a positive accomplishment?
Won't you have money coming in, then, to tide you over until you can find another job?
It sounds like a good and useful step.

Yeah, that's true. And we got a robocall today saying that our application was accepted.

Even if we do get money, it won't be close to what we were making. Most of the reason we made as much as we did was because of our tenure, and not so much because of the comparative "value" of what we did.

Income is still income, though. And our tax refund is going to cover most of one month's living expenses. We just wish we didn't have to dip into our savings.

MDs

-- Sat Feb 27, 2021 1:13 am --

You sure do have style, Snaga.

Yeah, 30-plus years is a long time. And we agree that some degree of denial is to be expected.

MDs

If you don't mind, MDs, I'm going to switch to this account to continue making my poor comments, instead of Snaga- I'm trying to make it so if I make a comment in the dissociative forums as 'Snaga' it's only in an official capacity- which should be rare, since JJ is the named mod- I don't care for switching back and forth in the dissociative forums, it'd darn confusing for everyone and feels like misrepresentation. The idea of having unexplained 'others' already feels disingenuous enough, without having to have two accounts (not that I'm questioning the moderator team rationale behind it).

And thank you! I would call my style irritating, but it is what it is...

Maybe I'm merely assuming American from your terminology- but is there still any Federal UC tacked onto the state? I seem to recall Congress passing some more Rona relief. Not as much as before, but every extra dollar helps! Hopefully you'll get in on some of that- or they may pass another relief bill.

Hoo... at one time, the usual refund would have carried me several months. My taxes are so messed up I can't even begin to guess- I may end up owing! And I'm having to wait on a corrected W2. Yay me! I get supplemental unemployment, so I have a guaranteed income for some while yet, but it sure has borkened the taxes, that's for sure. Compared to past years, this one's a procedural train wreck.

Steph

Hey Steph,

First of all, a big thank you for deciding to keep the Snaga account for mod purposes only. We were uncomfortable with this issue being unresolved, so we're glad it is now.

Getting back to the topic....Yes, American. NYC suburbs.

Congress is presently trying to pass the American Rescue Plan, which includes pandemic-related increases in unemployment benefits. The existing increase is set to expire March 14th, and the extension would expire either during the last week in August or the first week of September. This is above and beyond any normal unemployment compensation that a person may be receiving, which is allowable for a 26-week period in any one-year period, which doesn't have to be a calendar year.

We haven't received an answer to our inquiry as to whether our regular claim can be backdated to the date we were laid off in mid-September. We send an email, and the response told us to speak to an agent by phone. We couldn't get through to an agent yesterday (Friday), so we'll have to try again early Monday morning.

In the meantime, our claim looks on track to be approved for payments starting from the date that we actually filed.

Cross your fingers. Better yet, cross one set of fingers for each member of your system, even any nonhumans. The more, the better.

MDs

fingers crossed

birdsong87 wrote:fingers crossed

Thanks!

MDs

Well it's not so much unresolved, as just darn confusing. Hard enough for me to keep track of who wrote what in here, I don't wish to share the confusion with members here.

For the same reason, I strongly discourage them from posting in anything outside of dissociation, that I've been engaging in under the other account. And don't ask us what we'll do if we ever retire from moderating, we'll have to make a decision. And they probably won't like it....

Well as far as backpayments, not sure how that would work for you with the federal supplements- whether you would still get as far back as when you were laid off, or not (in addition to the state). I know the FEMA funds that were freed up late last summer by executive order were backpaid to me while I was still getting UC, on account of the state got hold of the money some weeks after it had become available to any state that wanted them. It would be nice if you did! As the first round was an extra $600/wk. What that would do on taxes I don't know- would that be considered income for last year? I haven't enjoyed this tax season, although it's not as wretched as I had expected...

I do recall hearing that Congress might extend federal out to the fall. That would be good for those still on it. I am out from under having to file now, and am getting my promised supplemental, so I'm good. For.. a while longer. Then I'd better have a plan ready!

Fingers and toes crossed for you!

No worries, Steph. Just glad you're keeping things in the proper "buckets."

Just got off the line with the DOL. Ugh. The agents are helpful enough, but the cringey part is that there's at least 5 solid minutes of pre-recorded crap and button-pressing before you can get to a human. Our friends at Google say you can try pressing 9 immediately before the other prompts start, but that only shortcuts to a message saying "All agents are busy; please call back." So, bottom line is that we have to go through all the crappy prompts each time we call.

Deep breaths. Gotta summarize what we learned on the call before we forget it. We're learning to do something we've always hated: Making lists. And for UI, we're keeping a folder with a detailed chron record and all of the forms we've received.

And then there's our weekly call this afternoon with our job coach, which we're not prepared for, as usual....

Thanks,

MDs

Um. At least you get put on hold, I guess.

For us, our state was completely overwhelmed by the Rona. I'm glad I'm out of the UC system, now. I had to talk to a human once, during the height of the lockdown, and it took a week to get something other than a busy signal or simply a recording that the phone system was overwhelmed- then it took another week after leaving a message, to get a callback.

Now they've improved it- now you have to call a number, and IF you manage to not get a busy signal, you get put down for a next-day callback- but they only take so many of those a day, so it takes a lot of persistence.

I've become more organised, against my will, as well. I now watch all the bills and monies I spend, religiously. Gone are the days of bill auto-pay and not watching what gets drawn from what account when. We've always been horrible about remembering bills, and auto-pay was really nice, but now we have to return to the real-world, so the only thing we know to do is go crazy in the opposite direction, and spend ridiculous time on it- we have a printed calendar we populate with what bill when how much, as well as a pre-printed list of them to fill in with the particulars of date/amount/when and how much paid- and then are actually keeping our checkbooks up to date, for the first time in a long, long time. Determined not to fall back into old habits of letting ourself get into trouble with bills.

And I thought the 21st Century was gonna be boss. Meh.